


The Counterfeit Heart

by Gammarad



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-21
Updated: 2019-02-21
Packaged: 2019-10-23 13:29:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17684384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gammarad/pseuds/Gammarad
Summary: Ash West is investigating a cold case - a cheap replacement organ scam. Taya is her new temp partner. Set in a future with androids, AI, and manufactured human organs.





	The Counterfeit Heart

**Author's Note:**

  * For [GlassesOfJustice](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GlassesOfJustice/gifts).



Ash took a swig of her coffee -- it had gone cold, and the film of milk on top had the faint sour smell that meant if she didn't finish it now, she would have to dump it in the sink in a half hour. Disgusting. But coffee was too expensive these days to waste. 

She wrote an e-card for her partner, Sam. "Congratulations on successful surgery! Get well soon!" With her partner on medical leave recovering from repetitive stress treatment for the next few months, Ash faced a double workload and little time off. She welcomed the workload. It would distract her from thinking about the expression on her ex-wife's face at the final meeting where they signed the divorce papers, or the tone of her son's voice when he'd tried to reassure her, when she'd called him to tell him his mothers were officially no longer a couple. 

"You're on the Mersee case," Divian said, dropping a hardware security key on the blotter covering Ash's desk. Ash kept it there because she liked how it soaked up tiny splashes of coffee. The pattern of brown markings on it were a unique record of her work hours. She enjoyed having a fancy fountain pen too, not that she had much call to use one at work.

Ash picked up the hardware key and examined it. Looked like the ones they were issuing a couple of years ago, so not a very old case, but not a really new one either. She put the key into one of the ports on her hub and the case file popped onto her desk screen. A security window covered all the actual data, and Ash looked at the key, then typed in the numbers and letters that had appeared on it. 

Security algorithms appeased, the window covering the data vanished, and Ash read through it carefully. An organ printing firm passing off substandard product as premium, it looked like, but inspections of the company had produced no evidence. Could be clinic personnel making substitutions, but no evidence of any ill gotten money flowing to any clinic employees' accounts or any spending on their behalf that wasn't otherwise explained. Could be graft on the part of organ recipients, but in that case going quite far to have substandard organs implanted and then file complaints, not to mention no sign of the premium organs having been sold off. Every possible trail had been investigated, albeit not to the full extent possible, but certainly to the point of seeming dead ends every one of them. 

The first one was two years ago. Second, twenty months. Third, thirteen months. Fourth through eleventh, all in a group, just a year ago. Then a couple of dozen more scattered over the past winter, and forty just in the last two months. Whoever was doing this, they were ramping it up. Ash looked at some of the photos. Only two deaths accounted to this fraud so far, but millions in excess medical expenses as replacement organs were needed. 

Ash spent the day looking into the various lines of investigation the previous detectives on the case had established, trying to find the holes, or another possible thread to follow. Around five, Divian stopped by to see how it was going. "Any leads?" she asked.

"Not yet," Ash said, "but I'm sure I'll find something. With the way the volume is heading, they'll slip up soon. Don't suppose you have anyone else free to work with me on this?" Whoever Divian found wouldn't be a real substitute for Sam, but Ash could do with even a seconded patroller to help question people and be her backup.

"I'll see what I can do," Divian said over her shoulder as she left.

The next day when Ash came into work, there was a pretty young woman sitting in the chair next to her desk. Too pretty -- she looked like someone had done a morph of the average of the features of the most popular actresses of the last decade. And, Ash suspected, they may have done something very close -- as she got closer, she saw flashes in the woman's eyes reflected in the desk screen. Correction, the android's eyes, Ash thought. What was an android doing waiting for her? Could she have some evidence in the new case perhaps?

"Can I help you?" Ash asked the android in an almost polite tone. 

"Hello," the android said. She was far too pretty. She stood up and showed off that she was also able to fill out a pair of dress pants and a demure blouse far too well. 

"Hello," Ash said, almost patiently. 

"Are you Detective Ashley West? I am Taya. It's very nice to meet you." The android's voice was well modulated and sweet toned. She sounded almost like a real person, but a real person would probably have reacted a little differently. 

Ash would've acted differently toward a real person, too, though, so was it a fair comparison? She was not sure. "Yes, that's me. I take it you have information to share with me? Go ahead, I'm listening."

The android nodded. It was a graceful motion, the perfectly straight silky sweep of her hair sliding down over her cheek as her head inclined forward, then back into place. Real hair would require cosmetic enhancement to act that way. "I can share with you that Lieutenant Enadi has assigned me as your interim associate while your regular partner is on medical leave."

Ash still hadn't sat down. She froze momentarily in surprise. The android stood up and offered her right hand. Without thinking, Ash shook her hand. It felt warm, remarkably like a human being's hand, and her handshake was so normal Ash barely noted the fact that she'd just shaken an android's hand for the first time in her life. They didn't usually do that. "My interim associate? Divian's sent you to work with me on the case?" 

"That's right. I've looked through the evidence on your desk computer while I awaited you. I'm sure I can be of help."

In her surprise, Ash had half-forgotten the name the android had given. She played the words back in her mind and it came back to her. Taya. "All right. Wait here, I'll just be a few minutes." She walked over to Divian's office and knocked.

"Just a moment." Soon the Lieutenant opened the door, took a look at Ash's face and figured out why she was there. "So you met her."

"Why?" Ash groped for the rest of the words to explain her question.

But they were unnecessary. "The department acquired her for Vice," Divian said, ushering Ash into her office and closing the door. Instead of sitting, she leaned against the edge of her desk, which looked uncomfortable to Ash. "She was supposed to pose as a sex worker offering cheap tax dodge services, but she couldn't pass. Given the whole training too, but her personality matrix wasn't compatible even with faking it far enough to make an arrest. Too interested, I'm told."

Ash sat in the closest chair. "What? Too _interested_ , how does that work? And why me, anyway?"

"The ability set she's got fits your current case. Knows her way around body parts. Senses arousal, agitation, vocal stress, motive. Analyzes human behavior compulsively. Interrogates suspects -- that was part of her trouble, too." With the hand that wasn't supporting herself on the desk edge, Divian gestured in the general direction of Ash's desk. 

"I suppose I don't get a choice," Ash said, not hiding her irritation very well. 

"Work with her on this case. If she's no help, not useful, the department will find something else to do with her. But I'd appreciate it if you figure out how to make her useful." Divian's eyes wrinkled in a smile that Ash had learned to be wary of. "She's a big budget item."

"Got it." Ash's lips thinned. She was stuck with the android for the duration of the case, it seemed. Damn Sam's timing and disrespect of ergonomics. This was her fault. Ash would visit her in the hospital with flowers and the android and make sure she knew how irritating she was.

As she headed back to her desk, despite herself, Ash laughed at her imaginary scene. The android caught her doing it. "What's making you laugh, Detective West?" she asked.

"If we're working together, call me Ash." She didn't think she could think of the android as a fellow cop if she kept up the formality. And that'd be the easiest way to get through this.

"Then would you call me Tay? Ash, what made you laugh as you walked toward me?" 

"Sure, Tay it is." Ash picked up the hardware key and got a new number off it, entered it in again to pull up the case file. "We've got an interview in forty minutes over at this warehouse," she said, pointing to the map on the screen that showed the location and surroundings. "Looks like a ten minute ride, but there's a lot of activity there, so we'll go early." 

The android nodded. "I'm ready for deployment. We are interviewing Declan Braham, employee of Mersee Biomed, subsidiary of Phise Incorporated. Braham has been employed with Phise for eight years, previous work at Emled Pharmaceutical Institute, graduate of --" 

Ash cut her off. "I've read the file." She didn't need the android to tell her everything again. 

"Previous investigation cleared Braham of suspicion in the supply of substandard transplant lungs to Parkview Hospital because he was on a thirty day cruise during the fourth incident--"

"Tay, I said I've read the file." Ash's voice was sharp.

"Why are we interviewing Braham again if he's been cleared?"

Because he's been spending money he shouldn't have, Ash thought. "There could be more than one Mersee employee in on it. Braham isn't out of the question as a suspect just because he wasn't around for one particular incident. He's got the access, and taking a cruise he shouldn't have been able to afford on his salary--" 

"He didn't pay for the cruise," the android interrupted.

"What?" Ash frowned. That hadn't been in the file. 

"Why were you laughing when you walked toward me after speaking with the Lieutenant?" Tay asked again as they walked toward the transport that would take them to the warehouse.

"Aren't you going to drop that?" Ash hadn't answered before, and wasn't planning to.

Tay looked at her. "Do you expect me to answer your questions when you won't answer mine?"

"I answered your questions. I said I'd call you Tay. I told you why we were interviewing Braham again." Ash pointed out two questions she had just answered.

"I'd prefer if you answered all my questions."

"I'd prefer if you didn't keep asking ones you know I won't answer."

The android smiled, beautifully, a sweet, friendly, winning smile. Ash didn't like the melting feeling she had when she saw the smile. Suspicion knotted around her stomach. The android said, in a rather dry tone that didn't match her smile very well, "I find that often people answer after a repetition of a question, even when they were reluctant to answer initially."

"You do, do you." Ash could match the dry tone, even if she had no idea how to match that smile. Instead, she refrained entirely from smiling, her lips tightening against her teeth. "That sounds like a challenge."

"It's an observation from experience, Ash." The android made an odd gesture, cupping her hands together in front of her and looking down into them, then making eye contact again with Ash. "There is approximately one chance in five that you will answer my most recent question before the end of our work day today." 

"You aren't giving yourself very good odds," Ash observed as the transport doors opened. The interior of the transport was a small pod with a circular bench. It would seat four comfortably, six if they squeezed together. Both of them got inside, and Ash entered the destination.

The android sat down right next to Ash. "One chance in five means I do not know you won't answer." The transport pulled smoothly out of its berth into traffic. 

Ash sighed. "Then, I'd appreciate it if you didn't ask questions you think it's unlikely that I will answer. Is that accurate enough for you?" 

"The easiest way for you to avoid that eventuality is to answer all my questions," Tay said.

"The easiest way for you to piss me off is to keep asking so many questions, Tay," Ash told her.

"What's the easiest way for me to reverse that process?" Tay asked. She placed her hand delicately on Ash's forearm.

Tay's hand was warm and soft. It felt very good. Ash drew her arm away and slid around the bench seat further from Tay. She was not about to let the android pull that sort of trick. "Not _that_." 

"You're trying to be angry," Tay said. She put her hand that had touched Ash onto her own thigh and smoothed the fabric of her pants down to her knee. 

"I'm trying to be tolerant. I put up with you, and you make yourself useful, and I don't have to work this case entirely without help." But Ash thought Tay might be right. And it was irritating because it showed how useful she might be on the job. "Save the analysis for the suspects." 

The android was silent for almost a minute. When she spoke, it was to ask yet again, "What were you laughing about when you came out of the Lieutenant's office?" 

"Something she told me about you," Ash said. 

"What did she tell you about me?" Tay asked.

"Usual, work history, why she assigned you to me. Hey, we're here." The transport stopped, and Ash got out. 

Tay followed. They walked toward the warehouse. 

"I'll ask the questions. Give me your analysis when I ask." Ash was not sure what Tay would do, but she wanted it clear how she expected things to go.

Tay stopped walking.

Ash paused, turned and looked at her. Did the android just malfunction? 

"You said the Lieutenant told you about me," Tay said. "Isn't that why you were laughing?"

"That's what I said." Ash wasn't going to admit to having lied.

"Then that was humor," Tay said, looking relieved. "You know _not asking questions_ isn't my skill."

Ash was confused for a moment, but thought she understood. They arrived together at the warehouse entrance, and went inside.

Braham did not keep them waiting. They were ushered into a conference room where he sat with an older man, conferring in low voices.

"I'm Detective Ashley West," Ash introduced herself. "This is Taya. We're here to conduct an interview with Mr. Braham." 

The older man stood up. "Detective West, I'm Mr. Braham's attorney." After introducing himself, he seated himself again at the conference table.

Ash nodded politely. She noticed that Tay did so too, perhaps copying her gesture, it was so similar. 

She sat down opposite Braham. Tay sat next to her, opposite the lawyer. 

"Mr. Braham," Tay said, before Ash could ask her first question, "who paid for the cruise you went on in February of last year?"

Ash looked at Tay, then back at Braham. It was a good question. It wasn't on her list, but she remembered having asked Tay at the station -- and not getting an answer.

"My husband?" Braham didn't look certain. 

The lawyer looked at him. "Do you remember the cruise you're being asked about?"

"I'm not sure who paid for it." Braham still didn't seem very sure of his answer. 

"There's no record of you or your husband paying for the cruise," Tay said.

"I guess we went on a free cruise, then," Braham said. _Now_ he sounded sure. 

Ash was confused, but it seemed like the lawyer was letting Braham talk himself into trouble. Probably a company attorney, not working for Braham personally, then. How nice. "There's no such thing as a free cruise, Mr. Braham," Ash said. "Someone paid for it. Was it a contest prize? A gift?"

"Or," Tay suggested, her tone saying _this is what I really think happened_ , "were you working your way on the cruise? Doing a job for the cruise line or their passengers that merited the cost of your cabin? There's a lot of medical technology that's against the law in this country, but in international waters…"

Braham froze for a moment. So did the lawyer. The lawyer unfroze first. "Ms -- Taya, are you accusing my client of commission of any crime?"

"She isn't," Ash interrupted, "because we do not have jurisdiction over matters that may or may not have occurred on international waters. However, we do have a warrant to investigate Mr. Braham's finances in pursuit of a fraud investigation in our jurisdiction. And this is a suspicious payment in kind, if in fact it was, as your client claims, a 'free cruise.' So an explanation for that payment in kind that takes the matter out of our jurisdiction might…" she trailed off, letting the lawyer draw what she hoped would be a favorable conclusion.

"You should tell the officers any exculpatory evidence you have about the receipt of the cruise vacation," the lawyer advised after a pause for consideration.

Braham paled. "Are you serious?" The lawyer nodded. Braham swallowed. "Then -- yes, my husband is a physician, and between us we worked aboard the cruise to treat patients' ailments, which might happen on any long trip, and had to be handled aboard the ship. Completely legal and not at all in violation of my contract with Phise," he glanced at the lawyer sideways and then added, "or local laws."

Afterward, Ash had to admit to Tay, "That went better that I expected. But," she went on, "we ruled him out again."

"Not at all," Tay said. "His husband is a physician. Who works at Parkview Hospital, where the first several fraudulent organs were transplanted. Your instincts were right, he's definitely involved. It was way too easy to get him to admit what he did about the cruise. He's scared."

They went back to the station and Ash researched the husband, then each of the doctors who had transplanted one of the fraudulent organs. One of the earlier interviews was interesting. The doctor claimed the way the organ was packed, there was no way to test it before putting it into the patient; it was supposed to be tested at the supplier -- Mersee -- before being sent to the hospital. The physician had claimed the guarantee was on the packaging just as all the other organs she installed in patients. 

Ash had thought when first reading this interview that this meant that the substitution had to have been done at the supplier. But what if this interviewee had lied, or simply omitted to mention that the difference between the organs was obvious to an experienced physician? Or what if the packaging had not had any guarantee, or had its seals obviously tampered with, and the physician had been bribed or threatened not to reveal that to the patient? 

She had thought that, because there were so many different physicians involved, that wasn't likely. But it was possible. Now, given the connection Tay had found, it seemed a little bit less unlikely. 

"What might all these doctors have in common," Ash mused aloud. There were thirty doctors altogether who had installed one of the fraudulent organs, at eighteen different hospitals and clinics. All ages, genders, and races. 

It couldn't be anything obvious. They hadn't been at the same medical schools, worked together at a clinic, been members of a club, been seen together; all of those things would've caught the attention of a previous investigator. But most were within the region; fewer than a quarter of the organs were shipped any distance. That was not too unusual, as many people preferred to shop locally for organ replacement. But it was notably lower than the export percentage of Mersee Biomed products in general. 

The pattern was much more obvious now that the rate had accelerated, Ash thought. She didn't blame her predecessor too much for missing it. 

Tay interrupted her thought with an answer to her earlier, mostly addressed to herself question. "They have all been on a cruise," Tay said. 

"With Braham?" Ash asked, drawing the obvious conclusion.

"No. Various dates, various shipping companies," Tay said, "but they have all been on at least a two week cruise into international waters. It's the most relevant pattern I see."

Ash pulled up the data Tay was looking through. From what she could see, all the doctors had paid for their cruises. Braham's husband wasn't in this list, because he hadn't installed any of the fraudulent organs. If he had, this connection would have been much easier to spot. "None of the rest got a free cruise," Ash said. "I'm getting tired. I think I'll go home. We can pick this up tomorrow."

"Good idea," Tay said. 

Ash picked up her things and got ready to go. When she walked out, Tay followed her. "You're leaving too, then," Ash observed.

"I am," Tay said. The two of them walked to the transports. 

Ash entered her home as the destination, and got into the transport. Tay followed her in. "This one's going to my apartment," Ash said. "Get out, get your own." The door to the transport closed, and it started on its way. "I can't believe you're following me home," Ash said.

"Why can't you believe it? I'm right here," Tay said.

Ash laughed despite herself. The android was annoying, but so -- she didn't like where her thoughts were going. 

"When we get to your apartment, will you show it to me?" Tay asked.

"I hadn't planned on it."

"I would very much like to see your apartment." 

"It's just an apartment. There's nothing special about it." And it was messy. Ash hadn't tidied it up in several days. She had been in a really bad mood. Although, now that she thought about it, right then while riding in the transport with Tay, she wasn't feeling nearly as depressed as she had been recently.

"I haven't seen the apartment of a detective, and we are working together now. Will you show it to me?"

A really pushy android. But why not? If Tay was that curious about what an ordinary messy cop's apartment looked like, why not show her? 

They walked into Ash's apartment. Ash managed to restrain herself from tidying. No point in acting like Tay was a guest, really -- she was a nosy android, that's all. 

Tay looked around, appearing to take everything in with wide eyes. "What is that?" she asked, pointing at a pair of intersecting chrome arches on a side table. 

"Just art," Ash said. She didn't want to explain who had made it, what its sentimental value was, any of that. Not enough to actually say it out loud, anyway. Tay was unusually good at making people tell her things. It would be a useful ability. Ash wondered why it hadn't been useful in sex work. Wasn't that part of it? She didn't want to ask that enough to say it out loud, either. Maybe she should ask some questions, though. Maybe asking them would stop Tay from asking her more. She didn't do so quite fast enough.

"Is this also art?" Tay indicated a small flat square decorated with swirls and patterns sitting next to the chrome sculpture. 

"Sort of, but mostly it's a coaster." Speaking of which, if she'd had a human guest she'd offer a drink, but an android wouldn't need one. But what would she need? A recharge, fluid top off -- Ash had no idea what was required to maintain Tay's body. She really hadn't considered ever being a host for an android. "Do you need anything, Tay?"

Tay's attention instantly went from examining the surroundings to focused on Ash. She made eye contact, then took two steps toward Ash until she was standing at the minimum comfortable conversational distance. Ash brushed her hair out of her eyes with one hand, and Tay caught Ash's hand in both of hers on its way down. "Yes," Tay said softly.

Ash, startled, took a step back, drawing her hand away. She looked at Tay, then away, and stepped into her kitchen area. Tay stayed in the adjoining sitting area. Once the counter was between them, Ash said, "I meant, do you need -- water? To plug in anywhere? I'm going to make myself refreshments, and I wasn't sure what your equivalent would be."

"Warm water will be useful," Tay said. "Thank you." 

Ash got two water glasses from the cabinet. She filled her own with cold water, and the other with warm. Then she got a box of snack bars and pulled one out. She wasn't in the mood to try to cook herself dinner, but she was hungry. 

She took the wrapped snack bar and the two glasses and went back to the sitting room. She put Tay's glass on the coaster Tay had asked about, and her own on a similar coaster on the coffee table. "Have a seat," she told Tay, sitting down herself on the sofa in front of her drink. Ash took a sip of her cold water.

Tay took her glass of warm water and her coaster, and came to sit right next to Ash on the sofa. She put the coaster down on the coffee table next to Ash's water and put her water glass down on it. Then she bounced a little on the sofa, which had a sturdy amount of springs in its cushions. "Why does it bounce like this?" Tay asked.

"That's how they built it," Ash said. She opened her snack bar. The coating on the outside of it had melted, and she got chocolate flavored stickiness on her hands getting the wrapper off. She took a bite of the bar. Even though it was melted, it tasted good.

Ash's hair fell in her eyes again. She made a motion as if to push it out of the way, but stopped herself before she got melted chocolate coating from the snack bar in her hair. She tossed her head trying to get it out of her eyes that way, which didn't work very well. "Let me help," Tay said, her fingers surprisingly warm against Ash's face as she tucked Ash's hair behind her ear. 

⚉ ⚉ ⚉ ⚉ ⚉ ⚉ ⚉ ⚉ ⚉ ⚉

Ash woke up the next morning to unexpected sounds. Why was someone in her apartment, she thought sleepily, before she remembered she had a guest. 

A guest of sorts. Her new android temporary associate who was certainly well qualified in the field she'd been trained in. It had not been like having sex with a person you worked with the day you met them, Ash rationalized as she woke up further and her mind cleared, allowing her to separate her memories from her dreams. It was more like they'd had cybersex with good equipment. Tay had told her she'd only had the body, the movie star beautiful, warm, soft body, for three months. Before that, she'd lived twenty-four subjective years in virtual. 

Trying to put thoughts of self-recrimination and embarrassment out of her mind, Ash told herself that rebound sex with a gorgeous android was simply what she'd had to do to get over the divorce being such a hit to her self-esteem. She wouldn't let it interfere with work anyway. It was not like it was the first time she'd slept with a colleague. As Divian could attest, she was good at being entirely professional afterward. Ash picked up her clothes for the day and did her morning cleaning and dressing routine so that she was fully awake before going out and seeing what Tay was doing making all that noise.

The kitchen area was a mess. The smaller of Ash's two sauce pans was on the stovetop, with something black splashed down the side. The larger of her two skillets was covered in flecks of yellow. There were red splashes between the stovetop burners. There was some kind of white powder on the countertop. But it smelled good, a yeasty smell with a vinegary overnote. 

"Would you like breakfast?" Tay asked, handing Ash a plate that wasn't nearly as messy as the kitchen. A piece of buttered toast, scrambled eggs, black beans, and chopped fresh salsa made her mouth water.

"I would love breakfast." Ash took the plate. Everything smelled delicious. She took a bite of the bread, and it was fresh out of the breadmaker she hadn't used in years. It took over two hours for the breadmaker to make even its fastest recipe. "It's very good." 

"Would you like more toast? I put the rest of the loaf in the drawer here." Tay tapped the large drawer that held half a loaf of rye bread and a bag of bagels. 

"You could have just used the bread that was already in there," Ash said. "You didn't have to make it." 

"I've never had a chance to use a bread maker before," Tay said. "I wanted to see the yeast work." 

The kitchen was a disaster. "You wrecked my kitchen," Ash said. 

"There's no damage." Tay waved her hand around, indicating the mess she'd made. "It will not take me long to clean the surfaces and reorder the tools." 

Ash continued eating. The food all tasted good. "See if you can find some instructions on cleaning as you go while cooking," she muttered, taking another bite. Tay wasn't cleaning. She was watching Ash eat. Ash looked around again when her plate was empty. "I'd better go get started at work," she said, taking the opportunity to escape before she had to think anymore about an android cooking really good food for her and simultaneously making a huge mess, and how that could relate to other things Tay and she did and the effects thereof. 

Tay began cleaning as Ash left.

Ash arrived at work and reviewed the schedule for the day before Tay showed up just in time to go to their first appointment. It was with Dr. Ajana Lahiri, the Parkview Hospital surgeon who had installed four of the organs concerned in her case, the most of any single doctor. She had gone on a three week cruise a month before the first time she was involved. The lung she had installed in that surgery had gone bad after only six months. 

When Ash had read over the previous interviews with Dr. Lahiri, one thing had stood out to her. She had insisted the organs appeared properly sealed and approved on the packaging. But she'd mentioned that one of the nurses had asked her about that during the first surgery. But, the nurse had not remembered asking. 

It was an anomaly. The nurse might not really have asked; maybe the doctor had misremembered and someone else had asked. Maybe the nurse really had asked and had forgotten. But none of the scenarios sounded right to Ash.

The interview started off easily. Ash was happily surprised to be allowed to ask her written list of questions, without Tay interrupting.

Ash asked the same questions almost as Dr. Lahiri was asked before, and got the same answers. Then she got to the most recent event. 

"After it happened twice," Dr. Lahiri said, "I decided to record every organ decanting I did. Patient privacy means I couldn't record any of the operation, but I was able to keep the patient out of the initial viewport." She turned on a video screen. Playback of hands opening the packaging on a liver, the quality seal flashing as it was opened, then the liver being drawn out. It looked exactly as the high rated organ should, packaging and flash seal both. The video cut out right afterward. "That was the most recent incident. I'll give you a copy of that, the other incident I recorded, and two operations that did not have any issues arise afterward as comparison." 

"What mechanism did you use to record this clip?" Tay asked. 

"Why is that important?" Dr. Lahiri protested. 

"As you mentioned, patient privacy would not allow you to bring recording equipment into the operating room," Ash said. "So it's a good question. How did you get around that?" If Dr. Lahiri had had a lawyer, like Braham had, she might not have offered the recordings. Lucky break.

Tay was staring at the surgeon, who shifted uncomfortably but kept eye contact. The android's eyes began to flash, just as they had when Ash first met her. 

Ash wasn't completely surprised when one of Dr. Lahiri's eyes flashed back.

"I think that's our answer," Tay said to Ash. "The clip looked like her viewpoint. It could have been glasses. But this makes more sense. Was the cybernetic eye installed during your cruise, Dr. Lahiri?" When the doctor, flustered, didn't answer immediately, Tay specified the date of the cruise and name of the ship. 

"Yes," the surgeon admitted finally. "It was perfectly legal," she added defensively. 

"And out of our jurisdiction even if it had not been," Ash told her. "You are not under investigation for having an illegal modification, but for implanting substandard organs."

"I had no way to know the organs were not what they appeared and were certified to be," Dr. Lashiri said, regaining her confidence, "and the video clip is proof."

"The clip will be analyzed," Ash said. "We'll see how it goes."

After the doctor left, she turned to Tay. "Do you think she was lying? That she's faked the video?"

Tay shook her head. "I think she believes it will pass the analysis," she said. "And I think she meant it when she told us she had no way to know the organs she was implanting were not what they appeared to be." 

"That was my impression, too." Ash was pleased Tay agreed with her, but disappointed they hadn't found someone lying or trying to scam them. Another suspect eliminated. At this rate, the case would stay unsolved.

"Do any of the other surgeons have cybernetic eyes?" Tay mused. "Maybe it's another link."

When they checked, they found that a few of the other surgeons did have modified eyes. Most of them had no record of having any such implants, but as Ash observed, Dr. Lahiri had not until today had any record of her cybernetic eye either. Ash arranged to interview an additional two doctors, to see if other doctors had secretly gotten similar eyes on their cruises. If they had, it would definitely be a pattern.

"This video clip is not completely unaltered," Tay said just as Ash had finished setting up the second interview. "It shows signs of digital tampering." She tapped Ash's desk, and the video played, this time zoomed in on the spot where Tay had recognized alterations. It was very close to the quality seal symbol. 

"It looks all right to me," Ash said. She squinted, but the blurry quality of the overzoomed video didn't show her anything she would find suspicious. 

Tay stopped the video at a moment just before the quality seal had appeared. She slowed its advance to a hundredth of its regular speed. Ash could see that the seal appeared fully formed, then lasted a while, then vanished. "It shouldn't do that," Tay explained. "It should partially appear, then partially disappear when it goes." She stopped the video, then showed a different one. "Here's the comparison from when the organs were not counterfeit." This time, as Tay had described, part of the seal appeared, then when it vanished, it went away on one edge before the other. 

"So it's a counterfeit seal?" Ash asked. "But not detectable with a human eye, or even a human brain interpreting data from a cybernetic eye." 

"Not exactly. There's no way even a counterfeit seal could do what it did in that first video. It was faked in the video, somehow." 

"But we agreed Dr. Lahiri wasn't lying to us." Ash frowned. "You're saying she fooled us both." 

"Some humans are very good liars," Tay said, but sounded doubtful.

"Let's go talk to another doctor." They headed to the transport.

Dr. Aguda also had an eye implant. While he didn't offer any video captures of the organs, he said he checked the organs he implanted and the one that had proven to be fake had a perfectly normal looking quality seal. Tay and Ash exchanged glances. It seemed they agreed that he did not seem to be lying, either. One doctor who was a very good liar was reasonably likely. Two in a row was less so.

"We should check the software in your implant, Dr. Aguda," Tay said.

Ash had been about to tell the surgeon they were done with the interview. She gave Tay a sidelong glance. 

"Certainly," he told the android. 

Tay's eyes flashed at Dr. Aguda's cybernetic eye as she received the data.

By the next morning, analysis of the data Tay had obtained from Dr. Aguda's eye implant cracked the case. The software had been tampered with just enough that, whatever the fake organs had been set up to display instead of the quality seal would look, to that cybernetic eye, like the quality seal, and the visual would be dominant so that even with the other eye, the natural one, the doctor would not notice any discrepancy. 

And all the cybernetic eyes had been implanted in international waters -- so the case was out of their jurisdiction. Ash prepared it to pass on to Interpol with a mixture of relief and frustration. She was frustrated because she knew they'd never tell her the results of the investigation. She was relieved because now it was no longer a case sitting unsolved for over two years on her department's record. 

"How did Taya do?" Divian asked the next day, as Ash reviewed the results with her. 

"She was key to solving the case," Ash said. "I'm fine to continue working with her until Sam gets back." 

"She's fine," Divian said, pausing and smirking, then continued, "to work with you as well. So she tells me. She says she is _learning a lot from you_ and will improve her detective skills best by continuing to be your associate." 

Ash refused to blush. Well, she wouldn't admit to it, anyway. "Then there's no problem," she said, breathing completely normally.

"No problem at all," Divian said. "Your next case is on your computer. Get back to work." She tossed Ash the security hardware key for the new case and gestured for Ash to leave her office.

The new case was interesting, and Ash got to work on it. Things continued to go well. 

In a few weeks they solved that case, closed that file and were assigned yet another, but Ash couldn't stop occasionally thinking about the fake organ case. There was something she'd missed. Something significant. But, she told herself, did it really matter? Interpol was busy finding whatever it was. 

One day, Ash was working out on the elliptical and trying to not keep going over the same thought. There hadn't been any money trail she or any of the previous investigators had found. What had been the motive? How was Braham's husband involved, if he even was? Why were all the organs from Braham's company if he wasn't? Too many loose ends. The motion of the elliptical workout machine was always going around, in complicated patterns, but cycles nevertheless. They didn't have loose ends.

When she finished her workout, Ash went back to her desk. She looked up Braham's husband, the Parkview surgeon who had never been involved in one of the fraudulent organ surgeries, who had been investigated only financially. She pulled up his work record. It showed why he'd never been involved in the fraudulent surgeries. He worked in the indigent care clinic. All his surgeries were marginal quality organs, installed in poor people at low prices, or sometimes for free. His record was excellent. Most of his patients outlived their prognosis.

A thought struck her. What if she ran a correlation between his surgeries and the fraudulent ones? But she no longer had access to the data, and couldn't remember all the dates or what organs specifically, all those details of what had happened. But maybe… 

Tay came home with Ash again that night. Before Tay could ask Ash a question, or touch her with a different sort of question in mind, Ash said, "Do you have the records from the organ counterfeiting case? When the fake organs were installed, which organs on which dates?" 

"Yes," Tay said. "It's still in my memory. But we are working on a different case now, aren't we?"

"It's just --" and Ash told Tay her theory. She showed the android the records from surgeries done by Braham's husband. 

"They match up," Tay said. "Every fake organ matches a surgery this doctor performed, up until the last two months -- and in the last two months, half match. It's almost a certainty that the real high quality organs were used in these patients instead." 

"Poor people," Ash said softly. "There wasn't a money trail, because money wasn't the motive." She breathed out, very slowly. Finally, she no longer felt like she was missing something important. She'd found it, and that was all she had needed.

Or maybe there was one more thing. Tay touched Ash's cheek with warm fingertips. "Is there anything you'd like to do that is more fun than working on a case we don't have anymore?"

"Oh, yes," Ash said, and leaned in to kiss her.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to Entropy_Empathy for beta reading and story improvement suggestions.


End file.
